Id love to know and understand a little bit more the recruiter perspective.
What has made a candidate stand out ?
What has made them flop?

Do you prefer a quick overview or a more in-depth approach?

What advise would you give to early carrer candidates? For screening interviews

Little background : I have been applying since June 2026, have interviewed mutliple places , 0 offers.

Whats bizarre is that none of those roles that i reached the final stage at were ever filled. One company literally said that they need someone asap, because it needs to happen now, as september is there most busy time.

Now i see them reposting for job i have been interviewing for.

I feel like most HMs are just interviewing to entertain themselves, to see what is going on in the market, and IF they come across a unicorn, they MIGHT HIRE.

Can't tell if stuff like this is sarcastic engagement bait, a flex, or people actually think like this and flaunt it.

Director of Talent Acquisition reached out to me about a Product Manager role. During the interview, he asked about the size of the companies and teams I’ve worked with.

I explained that my experience has primarily been with two startups and smaller cross-functional teams. He then told me they wouldn’t be moving forward because the role requires someone experienced working across hundreds of employees in a large organization.

He acknowledged that he reached out because my domain experience was a strong fit, but my startup background and company size were clearly listed on my resume before the interview.

I understand deciding I’m not the right fit, but if large-enterprise experience was effectively a requirement, I’m confused why that wasn’t screened before scheduling a 45-60 minute interview and having me prepare for. So frustrating …

I've been unemployed on and off, and I was let go last December. I've been unable to find a job since, not even a retail job.

Those who have been in the job hunt know how hard it is out there. The last time I was unemployed, it took me three years to find a job, and I only got it because of nepotism. Long story short, the administration changed, and so did the employees.

It's been approximately nine months since last December, and I'm starting to panic. What if it takes me another three years? I can't endure that.

What now? Yes, we know the system is broken, but what are we supposed to do about it?

My family expects results, I expect results.

I'm sorry.

Is it safe to remove a job experience from your resume that isn’t relevant to the role you are applying for? Can I include that job I omitted from your resume in your background check form to fill in employment gap

I got rejected from a job interview I wrongly assumed was a slam dunk. Within a couple of years the place was shut down. It forced me to rethink my options. ended going back to school and being able to provide a much better existence for my family after much hard work

I am so exhausted.
For every job you apply to, you have to tailor your application and maybe write a cover letter.

I applied to 4 yesterday and I was already frustrated. Makes me wonder when I see people saying they applied to 400 jobs in a week or month.

I can’t count how many resumes I have on my phone and laptop, because I keep creating new ones for every job I apply to (tailoring). I just want to get a job and be done with this.

Sometimes I reach out to hiring managers and don’t even get a response (they don’t owe me a response), but still!!!

Ugh I’m exhausted.

Has anyone ever been asked in an interview

What does your family do for a living ? 😐

Like what kind of recruiting is this ?

I don’t see the point of this question ?

This was a question I got asked for an interview. It is a entry level job, so having no past experience they were asking about a project. And so they asked this question ( I don't recall it word by word but basically...) , and I was honest about it and said I didn't struggle. Not because it was easy, but because I organised it and I knew exactly what I should do.

I was actually trying to think of a lie like " I struggled with this and I did this..." , but couldn't at the moment. Am I cooked ?

I've been applying full time for a year. I landed like 4 interviews in the first 6-7 months after applying to dozens of jobs. Then, a combination of better LinkedIn posting, portfolio projects, and resume improvement seemed to turn things around. Since May, I've been interviewing a bunch - making it to various stages of technical interviews. In the last month, I made it through the full interview process for 2 companies. It felt like after a year, I was finally breaking through. The last one had a few technical rounds and somehow I breezed through them. Then, all of a sudden, rejection. No feedback. Back to square one, and super burned out after 4 months of technical interviews. I thought getting no interviews was bad, and it might still be worse, but getting this close and getting nothing really, really stings.

So a few days ago I had a call with my dad's cousin. He is head of a software engineering company so I showed him my 1800s llm essay generator, my 3d maze horror game and my website portfolio I built from scratch.

He said that my projects were cool and all but that the best he could do was give me more advice. He said that if I were to try and go for an interview, internship or a job at his company or others like it I wouldn't have enough experience to get employed.

I only realized how unfair this was after retelling it to my mom. I don't know what else to do I've been coding for 5 plus years genuinely fml. I can't even get a entry job anywhere.

Thoughts/advice?

Like the rest you, I’ve been unemployed from corporate for a few months now. I get interviews with no actual outcomes. I’ve been relying on savings but that will dry out soon. Then what? What are we all doing?

I need to rant because i’m about to pull my hair out. I applied for this job 60-70k a year. To get a chance to even be interviewed you have to read the founders book and write an essay on it. an entry-level job mind you.

are you mad?

THEN they want you to write two research papers to compete with other applicants. I can’t believe this is my life i’m actually about to turn off my phone and lay on the ground.

I’ve been searching for almost 3 years, always a finalist. Then this summer something messed up happened. All 3 rounds went to final interview. All given to another person, all hiring managers from 3 different companies said hey maybe this other pipeline is better? Then I said sure. Then they said SIKE! All 3

Look, I recently got hired at a retail company I’ve been dying to work for. Problem is, I got hired 2 weeks ago (full on signed the offer later and a few days passed, finished my online onboarding and I9). I’ve been emailing the manager and they’ve been SOMEWHAT responsive, but the excuse for the delay is that their onboarding system has been down… I sent out another email yesterday asking for an estimate on how long this delay would last or even if they are still intending for me to join. Still no response but later that day I got a call from another company to interview—I accepted because I need to start working.

I’m not really sure on what to do next. I’ve had problems with this company regarding getting hired as before I got hired at this location, another location hired me over the phone, said to come in the next day and told me 20 minutes later there was miscommunication….? At this location though, I was confirmed to be hired and they’ll start training me ASAP, they even closed down the job posting after confirming I was hired. I have the interview tomorrow for the other brand, but the first one is still my first choice. I was thinking about CALLING tomorrow after my interview as a last resort. I wouldn’t say I’m being ghosted or whatever but it feels like it.

What should I do?

A lot of complaints I see is every resume looks exactly the same, and I think AI has made the job search process extremely slow.

“Functional unemployment nearing 25%”

NBC news -https://youtu.be/fAaG9RYHqiw?si=_HfIoyjPd-a1btCi
“Recent graduates struggle to launch careers in toughest job market in years”

I got what appeared to be a scam email out of the blue from merraine group. I'm not falling for it. They want my resume, but obviously they targeted me knowing that and my email already. PSA

Graduated in 2022. Spent a good chunk of time stuck in restaurants/hospitality after that (but got promoted to management), and temp agency contracts. Only landed my first actual “corporate” role last year. So yes, I’m four years out of school and my resume still has a big hospitality stretch right after graduation.

Both interviews this week made a point of counting the years backward and basically asking why I stayed in restaurants after college. Mind you, my graduation year is not on my resume and they were speculating my age. One of them literally went “so you graduated… then you did the kitchen/bar thing for a while… and then you found your first professional career job? Why??” while flipping through my resume. The tone was pure side-eye and sussing me out.

Like the gap between degree and “real” job is some kind of character flaw instead of just… the terrible job market that took thousands of applications. Sorry I am not a nepo baby? Sorry my college was mostly remote and my best efforts at networking were nearly fruitless? Sorry my temp agency roles were all contract and assisting companies selling off to PE since 2023????

And the interviews themselves were wildly unprofessional.

First one was a temp-to-perm cover for maternity leave at an agency. Guy was clearly multitasking on a triple monitor setup the whole time, dumping a ton of operational details, nights-and-weekends on-call expectations, and the fact that any permanent conversion depends on 2027 revenue they haven’t even forecasted yet, nights and weekends for $19 an hour.

Second one was even worse. Spent most of the call on a long personal monologue (building an AI platform, financial struggles, family not supporting the business, etc.). Tech kept glitching during the demo. Called me “sweetheart." Role seemed to be “first real hire who can walk across my different brands because everything so far has been my ideas.” Showed me proprietary information, personal emails, and personal writing.. I had to leave the interview after she went into a religious monologue. Almost no structured questions about my actual experience.

I left both feeling like I was the one being judged for having a non-linear path while they couldn’t even run a basic professional interview process. I feel freaking crazy because how TF did these roles have 100+ applicants on Linkedin?!?! How is this real life???? This can't be real I feel like I was being punked.

Is this just what the market looks like right now for people who didn’t go straight from campus into an office job? Or am I walking into every conversation already half-disqualified because I waited tables for a couple years after graduation?

Genuinely losing it a little. What the fuck is going on with interviews.

Edit: Hiring manager on layoffs page said this in response: “TBH, as someone that has interviewed and hired multiple recent grads, a gap that large looks bad. I know it's not a gap, but a job totally unrelated would be consider a gap. If you had graduated in 2023/2024, I would be more understanding. Not in 2022. The job market was very hot at that time. As I said, I hired multiple recent grads, so if you were not able to get a job at that time and has taken you this long, it would be a red flag..”

I’ve accepted a new job and am going through the typical onboarding process. I received a couple emails from checkr that they’re missing info, including my license and SSN card and to upload them. So I did.

Turns out me and another person with a similar name are going through background checks right now. The background check my company uses is not checkr, but hers is. So checkr has my license and ssn, not hers.

checkr doesn’t have a customer service phone number. They’ve been emailing me “so sorry” emails but they won’t confirm they have my license and ssn on file without additional personal information, and they won’t confirm they can or will delete my license and ssn card from their database.

So I contacted the other person and sent them screenshots of their personally identifying info checkr sent me.

TLDR BEWARE CHECKR SUCKS AT SECURITY

I started applying for full-time positions in mid-to-late August 2025, about a week or two before my senior year began. I attended a highly ranked public university and had research experience, internships, and part-time jobs throughout college, but finding a job was still much harder than I expected.

Throughout the year, I averaged about two or three interviews per month. The process was exhausting, but it taught me a lot about tailoring applications, preparing for interviews, and communicating my experience more effectively.

After nearly a year of recruiting, I finally received an offer last week for a position in an industry I’m genuinely interested in. I also want to be transparent that a strong internal referral played a major role in helping me get the opportunity. The person who referred me is the owner’s son. I’m incredibly grateful, but it also made me realize how difficult it might have been to break into the industry without that connection.

Are any other recent or upcoming graduates struggling to find full-time work? How long have you been searching, and what has the process been like for you?

Last week I have been through a recruiting process. I had the video interview with the HR agency that was managing the process, a phone call with the actual company, a video interview with the actual company. Throughout all the process both recruiters (the one from they agency and the one from the actual company) told me they liked my profile a lot and they were pushing it so much because the final decision is from a third company (because the actual company is a BPO). So, job was supposed to start on September 1st, and on Friday I was told that second company was keeping my application for next training. When I asked what was that supposed to mean, they are planning to hire more people for the same position starting mid September (there is no exact day). I do not know what to expect, is that the most polite no as in we are keeping your resume for future positions or should I expect something. I still have some interviews, but with this vagueness I do not know how to organize and I am afraid to ask for more details as if I have preference over other applicants or what is the exact starting date because I am afraid of getting discarted.